Welcome to the forty-first edition of Brain Blogging. In this round, we discuss the likelihood of bipolar children becoming bipolar adults, problems with learning during multi-tasking, how magnets can improve your mood, and many more topics.

Remember, we review the latest blogs related to the brain and mind that go beyond the basic sciences into a more human and multidimensional perspective. If you were left out, just leave a comment with your blog entry. You can check our archive for every edition.

For future editions, please remember to submit your blog entries using the online submission form. We will do our best to review and include your entry! Enjoy your readings…

It’s All in the Mind…

Until recently, the psychiatric paradigm was that bipolar disorder did not manifest itself until a person reached young adulthood. However, current research has been increasingly calling this into question since children as young as six years old appear to show at least some symptoms of bipolar disorder.

Creativity is a trait that usually goes hand in hand with learning. The most creative people in history and even those I know in my life are also the people that are constantly learning new things. Think of famous inventors, artists and teachers; they are all creative and people who are constantly learning.

Kids think that this entertainment while studying helps their learning. It probably does make learning less tedious, but it clearly makes learning less efficient and less effective. Multi-tasking violates everything we know about how memory works. Now we have objective scientific evidence that multi-tasking impairs learning.

I Will Not Die writes Your Comprehensive Guide to the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) Personality Test:

The MBTI test asks questions that determine your personality based around several areas. The result is a four-letter type that can be used to say certain things about how you generally react to things, how you perceive certain situations, and how you make decisions.

While constant intellectual stimulation, based on the familiar ‘use it or lose it’ approach to maintaining a long life brain is a necessary – indeed essential – precondition to what I have termed braingevity, such an overly narrow approach cannot, on its own, maintain the brain in peak condition and slow the consequences of ageing.

She’s been tested by several experts and now sees a psychologist once a month and psychiatrist (anxiety) twice a month. And she’s on Adderal – I notice a difference right away with the meds. Most of the airhead stuff is gone and she’s on top of things.

Sex, anxiety, fear, love, anger, whatever it is, every emotion originate from paleocortex (evolutionarily old brain). Activities in this part of brain is almost independent from the neocortex which has developed later in evolution. Even though our consciousness knows these emotions happen inside the brain, they can happen in older organisms without a conscious brain.

Researchers have targeted two different areas of the brain with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to improve symptoms of major depression. These two treatments for depression have been shown to be effective for alleviating many different symptoms. One area of the brain that has been targeted is the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Scientists at the Institute of Psychiatry in London used MRI scans to study the effect that ice cream has on the brain. The processing area at the front of the brain, which is activated when people enjoy themselves, “lit up” just as it does in those who win money or listen to invigorating music. A spokesperson for the study states, “just one spoonful lights up the happy zones in the brain.”

During the war, Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt had been an active opponent of the Nazi regime. As an eminent neurologist, he managed to save many of his patients from Aktion. His wife spent four years in prison for making “spiteful and malicious remarks” about Hitler and Creutzfeldt’s home and clinic were destroyed by Allied bombings.

Thanks to everyone who contributed. We usually receive more than 30 blog entries per month that we reduce to 10 or less. Congratulations on making the cut and offering such an interesting read! Thank you.

Shaheen E Lakhan, MD, PhD, MEd, MS, is executive director of the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation (GNIF). He is a published scholar in protein biomarkers, bioethics, biotechnology, education technology, and neurology. He serves on the editorial board of several scholarly publications and has been honored by the U.S. President and Congress.

About Us

Founded in 2005 by Dr. Shaheen Lakhan, Brain Blogger is an official undertaking of the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation (GNIF) — an international charity for the advancement of neurological and mental health patient welfare, education, and research. It is one of the most effective mediums for the GNIF to raise awareness of neuro-related topics.